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RELATIONS BETWEEN 

THE VERMONT SEPARATISTS 

AND GREAT BRITAIN, 

1789-1791 



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l^mcricau historical ^nim 

Vol. XXI., No. 3 APRIL 1916 



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[Reprinted from The American Historical Review, Vol. XXI., No. 3, April, 1916 ] 



DOCUMENTS 

Relations between the Vermont Separatists and Great Britain, 

1789-1791 

The intrigues of the Vermont Separatists savor of the type of 
conspiracy so prominent in the \^'est before the acquisition of Louisi- 
ana. In fact, the geographical positions of Vermont and of the 
Kentucky country were in one respect very similar. Both regions 
were so situated that it was easier for the inhabitants to float their 
products out by means of inland navigation systems through the 
northeastern and southwestern frontiers, respectively, than to send 
them out over the difficult land routes to the harbors of the eastern 
coast states. The position of Vermont in this respect closely re- 
sembles the relation of the Kentucky and Tennessee settlements 
to the closure of the Mississippi navigation, and was productive of 
much the same results ; for while the Western citizens of the Ohio 
Valley were demanding the free navigation of the river, and while 
their delegations to the Virginia ratifying convention hesitated to 
consent to the adoption of a new Constitution that would give con- 
trol of navigation and commerce to a remote central governmenv 
that had not been over-careful of their rights to the New Orleans 
outlet, a strong party in the Sovereign State of Vermont was against 
joining the Union, and favored an alliance with Great Britain, or 
even return to British rule. 

That Vermont was to a great degree dependent on the Cham- 
plain system appealed to many men in that state as a strong argu- 
ment for seeking the protection of Great Britain rather than joining 
the new Union and accepting a part of its debt. Forming a nat- 
ural highway from points almost as far south as the head of navi- 
gation of the Hudson, the Champlain system offered easy com- 
munication between Quebec and northwestern New England, to- 
gether with those adjacent counties of New York, extending as far 
as Lake Ontario, which were claimed by Vermont under the old 
New Hampshire grants. Other things being equal, it was less 
laborious and cheaper for the inhabitants of this country to send 
out their produce and to receive their importations by way of Lake 
Champlain and tlj,e Sorel River than to carry them to and fro over 
the rough roads to the Atlantic Coast. If commercial concessions 

(547) 



548 Documents 

were offered or to be had, the temptation for a Canadian connec- 
tion was all the stronger. 

The Allen brothers, Ethan, Ira, and Levi, were the most active 
and versatile of the separatist party, and their negotiations with 
Canadian and English officials form a story that is yet to be treated. 
The documents on which it must be founded, and from which a 
selection is here presented, are preserved among the Colonial Office 
Papers in the British Public Record Office. Transcripts of most 
of them are in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa, series Q. The 
references below, to one or other of these repositories, merely indi- 
cate the one in which the present inquirer found a particular docu- 
ment.^ 

Immediately after the preliminary articles of peace had become 
known, several " persons of influence " from Vermont visited Gen- 
eral Haldimand at Quebec, at different times. They represented 
their state as being strongly opposed to joining the Confederation, 
even though Congress complied with the condition, which had been 
advanced, that the new state should be exempt from any part of 
the debt of the United States contracted before the date of admis- 
sion. They encouraged the settlement of royalists, and candidly 
and confidentially told Haldimand that Vermont must either become 
annexed to Canada or become mistress of it, as it was the only chan- 
nel by which their produce could be marketed. They assured him 
that they preferred annexation. Haldimand, who, unlike some 
later Canadian governors, lacked initiative for petty intrigue, told 
them plainly that he could not interfere, and that he had positive 
orders to do everything possible to conciliate the affections of the 
subjects of the United States and those of Great Britain.- WUien 
Lord Sydney, then directing colonial affairs, received this news, he 
commented on it as extraordinary, but thought that it would not 
be consistent with the treaty to interfere "openly" in the disputes 
of the people of Vermont, though it would "be difficult to refuse 
to take them under our protection should they deterrnine to become 
subjects of Great Britain ". Haldimand must use his discretion, 
but should take no step without first notifying the home govern- 
ment.^ 

Through the year 1784 little was heard at Quebec from the 

1 The contributor being in Europe at the time of the final preparation of this 
material for the press, some of the annotations have been added, without ability 
to consult him, by the managing editor. 

2 Haldimand to North, Quebec, October 24, 1783, Canadian Archives, Q. 
22: 85. 

3 Sydney to Haldimand, Whitehall, April 8, 1784, Can. Arch., Q. 23: 55. 
Sydney was home secretary from December, 1783, to June, 1789. 



TJie Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 549 

Vermont separatists, and a formal demand by Governor Chittenden 
for the delivery of the British posts at Pointe-au-Fer and Dutch- 
man's Point was refused. It was supposed that they were turning 
their attention more to Congress.* The matter of connections with 
Canada had not been forgotten, however ; for Ira Allen turned up 
in Quebec in the spring of 1785 with a commission from the gover- 
nor of Vermont'* to negotiate for free trade between that state and 
the British provinces. Hamilton, then acting governor, sent Allen 
back with an indefinite answer." The governor's council declined 
to interfere on the ground that a royal order-in-council regulated all 
commerce. The request was forwarded to Whitehall.^ 

A memorial for free commercial privileges with Canada, with 
the same freedom as to the trade with the British West Indies and 
England in British vessels, was presented by Ira Allen to Dorches- 
ter late in 1786, and met with partial success. The governor's 
council, or " Council of State ", this time saw fit to open up a trade 
by way of Lake Champlain, with the " neighboring states " to the 
province of Quebec. Free importation of lumber, naval stores, 
hemp, flax, grain, provisions, livestock, and all products grown in 
those states was allowed, and all British products excepting furs 
and peltries might be exported into them from Canada without 
payment of duties.* The ministry afterward confirmed the action 
of the Canadian authorities, allowing Dorchester to direct the pas- 
sage of such laws as were deemed expedient for regulating trade 
with Vermont, but not by this means to permit the importation of 
foreign goods, or the exportation of furs. A commercial treaty, 
which Allen had petitioned for, was impossible, said Lord Sydney.^ 

While Ira Allen had been negotiating for commercial privileges, 
his brother Levi had endeavored to secure a contract for supplying 
the British navy with masts, at prices paid at Portsmouth, N. H., 

* Chittenden to Haldimand, Arlington, Vt., April 15, 1784, Can. Arch., Q. 23: 
78. Haldimand to North, Quebec, May 12, 1784, Can. Arch., Q. 23: 161. 

6 Act by the state of Vermont for the purpose of opening up free trade to 
and through the province of Quebec, with a resolution to appoint Ira Allen. Major 
Joseph Fay, and Hon. Jonas Fay commissioners for that purpose. Rutland, Vt., 
October 29, 1784. The act is in Slade, Vermont Slate Papers, p. 496; both 
act and resolution are in Records of the Governor and Council of the State of 
Vermont, HI. 397-398. The Council, October 26, 1786, substituted Levi Allen 
for Joseph Fay, resigned ; ibid.. 399. 

6 Hamilton to Sydney, Quebec, April 7, 1785, Can. Arch., Q. 24: 282. Ira 
Allen's report. June 7, 1785, to the General Assembly, is in Records of Governor 
and Council, 111. 398. 

" Extract from the minutes of the Council of State, Quebec, March 24, 28, 
1785, Can. Arch.. Q. 24: 450. 

8 Memorial of Levi Allen, November 22, 1786, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 7. Procla- 
mation of Dorchester, .'\pril 18, 1787, in Records of Governor and Council, 111. 
402. Ordinance of governor and council of Canada. April 30, 1787, ibid.. III. 403. 
Dorchester to Sydney, Quebec, June 18, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 4. 

9 Sydney to Dorchester, Whitehall, September 14, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 28. 



550 Documents 

before the war.'" This offer, transmitted to the British naval 
authorities, does not appear to have had any further consequences.^^ 
Another petition from Vermont was brought to Quebec by Levi 
Allen late in 1787, asking permission to export produce from Can- 
ada in British bottoms on the same terms as those enjoyed by 
British subjects. There is no record of this request being granted. ^^ 
The next summer his brother Ethan presented to Dorchester a long 
memorial, dated at Quebec, which is notable for the way in which 
this hero of Ticonderoga chaffered for British trading concessions 
and for supplies of arms in case of a rebellion against Congress, 
and indicated the willingness of Vermont to come under British 
dominion again. It is interesting to observe that this was pre- 
sented to the governor of Canada within a few months from the 
time when Wilkinson forwarded a similar communication to the 
Spanish governor at New Orleans, for similar purposes, and with a 
similar though perhaps more selfish motive. ^^ Ethan Allen asserted 
that Vermont had 15,000 men, and would resist aggression on the 
jiart of the United States and any attempts to subjugate it. 

Vermont is locally situated to the waters of Lake Champlain, which 
connect with those of the St. Lawrence, and contiguous to the Province 
of Quebec, where they must be dependent for trade, business and inter- 
course, which naturally incline them to the British interest — in the time 
of General Haldimand's command, could Great Britain have afforded 
Vermont protection, they would have readily yielded up their independ- 
ence and have become a Province of Great Britain, and should the 
United States attempt a conquest of them, they would, I presume, do 
the same, should the British policy harmonize with it. For the leading 
men in Vermont are not sentimentally attached to a republican form of 
government, yet from political principles are determined to maintain 
their present mode of it, till they can have a better, and expect to be able 
to do it, at least, so long as the United States will be able to maintain 
theirs, or until they can on principles of mutual interest and advantage 
return to the British government, without war or annoyance from the 
United States." 

Sydney acted with caution, upon receiving from Dorchester a 
copy of this letter, and replied that nothing could be done until the 

10 Levi Allen to Dorchester, Quebec, July 2, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 107, and 
Public Record Office, C. 0. 42 : 11, f. 87. 

11 Sydney to Dorchester, November 8, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 143. 

12 Major Skene to his father, Quebec, December 16, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 36: 
48 1. But the privileges accorded by the ordinance of April 30, 1787, were en- 
larged by one of April 14, 1788, of which the text is in the Vermont Records, III. 
405-406. 

13 The date of Allen's letter to Dorchester is July 16, 1788; that of Wilkinson 
to Miro is dated February 12, 1789. Gayarre, History of Louisiana, III. 223-240. 

"Ethan Allen to Dorchester, Quebec, July 16, 178S, Can. Arch., Q. 36:448. 
This is calendared by Mr. Brymner, in the Report on the Archives for 1890, who 
makes liberal quotations, pp. 210-211. 



The Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 551 

reassembling of the ministry.'"' Impatient at this delay, the ener- 
getic Aliens determined upon a bolder stroke ; they resolved that one 
of them should go to England in person, and there confer directly 
with the ministry. The story of Levi's voyage to England and of 
his relations with the Cabinet, the adventures of his ship, and his 
vain attempt to prevent Vermont from joining the Union, are de- 
scribed in the letters printed below. The first is a formal memorial 
to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The second 
is a reference of the memorial to the Committee of the Privy 
Council for Trade and Plantations. The report of the committee, 
made at a time when the Nootka Sound question bade fair to 
result in war between Spain and Great Britain, and when the min- 
istry was doubtful as to the attitude of the United States, has 
already been printed in this Review by Professor Frederick J. 
Turner.'" The committee considered an identical policy to be in 
many ways applicable to Vermont and Kentucky. A British in- 
terest should be fostered for commercial and political reasons in 
Kentucky ; the same interest might be enhanced in Vermont by giving 
the inhabitants liberal commercial facilities, though the committee 
did not presume to say whether the hostility of the States ought to 
be invited by the negotiation of an actual treaty with Vermont, 
which was recognized by the treaty of 1783 to be within Amer- 
ican boundaries. 

Allen was kept waiting in London while the business of the 
Nootka imbroglio proceeded. Grenville soon received information 
from his informal agent in New York, Major George Beckwith, 
that the United States would not go to war over the question of the 
posts, even should Spain and Britain come to grips. This assur- 
ance came from Alexander Hamilton, and enabled the Duke of 
Leeds, the secretary for Foreign AfTairs, to discount the veiled 
threats of Gouverneur Morris, who was at the same time in Lon- 
don as the personal agent of Washington, inquiring as to the dis- 
position of the ministry regarding fulfillment of the stipulations of 
the treaty of 1783.'" For this reason it was not necessary to hold 
out to Allen any favors much greater than those already granted by 

15 Sydney to Dorchester, Whitehall, September 5, 1788, Can. Arch., Q. 38: i, 
10 " English Policy toward .'\mcrica, 1790-1791". American Historical Re- 
view, VIII. 78-86, report of April 17, 1790. Cf. (same article, part I.), id., VII. 
707. 

17 See Beckwith to Grenville, New York, April 7, 1790, Public Record Oflfice, 
F. O. 4 : 12. Grenville to Dorchester, June 6, 1790, Can. Arch., Q. 44: 161. For 
Morris's mission, see American Stale Papers, Foreign Relations, I., and J. Sparks, 
Life and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. II., ch. I. See also Manning, 
"Nootka Sound Contrpversy ", in American Historical Association Report, 1906, 
pp. 417 ff. 



552 Documents 

the Canadian government, nor to accept the possibility of an alliance 
with the " Vermontese ". The whole intrigue, if it may be called 
such, was extinguished automatically by the confederation of Ver- 
mont to the United States. 

Our third document, Levi Allen to Dundas, August 9, 1791, 
runs parallel to, and supplements, a letter which Colonel Simcoe 
wrote to the same official a week before, August 2, after conversa- 
tion with Allen, and w.hich has been printed in the Report of the 
Canadian Archives for 1889.^* The fourth document is of addi- 
tional interest in that, like passages in the third and sixth, it shows 
relations hitherto unknown between Simcoe and General Elijah 
Clarke, the Georgia backwoodsman, in the period between the 
latter's first disappointment over President Washington's Creek 
treaty of 1790, on the one hand, and his relations with Genet in 
1793 and trans-Oconee outbreak of 1794." The fifth and sixth 
documents relate the story of Allen's final disappointment, in a 
manner to supplement the account which Allen gave Simcoe in a 
letter dated November 19, 1791, and printed in the Canadian Ar- 
chives Report for 1889.^° 

The Unionist party gave the governor of Canada considerable 
anxiety for the safety of the British posts in that state. In 1791 
he gave orders to the officers there that any attack must be repelled, 
and noted with concern the erection of the custom-house at Alburgh, 
which Levi Allen feared would take fire."^ The aggressive atti- 
tude of the Unionists toward the British posts was the subject of 
representations by Hammond, the British minister at Philadelphia, 
to Jefferson, who took some steps to quiet apprehensions.^- Dor- 
chester's nervousness over the Vermont posts added to his pertur- 
bation in 1794, when he made the famous hostile speech to the 
Indians and ordered Governor Simcoe, of Upper Canada, to build 
the Miami Fort on American soil, near the present city of Toledo."^ 

Ira Allen made a voyage to Europe in 1796, visited England, 
and petitioned the government for leave to cut a canal between 
Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River.-^ While in France 

IS p. 53. Colonel John Graves Simcoe had long since been listed for appoint- 
ment as the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, though his commission 
was not issued till September 12, 1791. Read's Simcoe, p. 127. 

10 .Stevens, History of Georgia, II. 404 ff. 

20 P. 56. 

21 J3orchester to Lieut.-Col. Buckeridge, January 17, 1791, Can. Arch., Q. 
50: 113. See p. 557, post, and note 40. 

'ii American State Papers, For. Re!., I. 461-463, correspondence between 
Randolph and Hammond relative to the speech of Lord Dorchester. Also Dor- 
chester to Dundas, Quebec, September 20, 1794, Can. Arch.. Q. 70:64. 

23 Dorchester to Hammond, Quebec, February 17. 1794, Can. Arch., Q. 67 : 105. 

24 Ira .Allen to Portland, London, -August 15, 1796, Can. .Arch., Q. 77: 339. 



The Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 553 

he purchased 20,000 stand of arms for the Vermont militia, though 
the Canadian officials noted that the Vermont militia was legally 
required to furnish its own arms.-^ Allen's shipment was captured 
by a British warship, it being suspected that they were for the aid 
of a revolution of the French inhabitants of Lower Canada. The 
proceedings and correspondence relative to Allen's connection with 
this plot against British authority are printed in part in the Report 
on the Canadian Archives for 1891,"" and in his Olive Branch. 

S. F. Bemis. 

I. Memorial of Levi Allen, May 4, 1789.-" 

To the Right Honhle Lord Sydney, 
Principal Secretary of State. 

The Representative and Memorial of Levi Allen in behalf of the In- 
habitants of the New Hampshire Grants, known by the name of Vermont 

Humbly sheweth. 

That your Memorialist is authorized by Commission under the Great 
Seal of Vermont, pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly thereof, 
to negotiate a Commercial and Friendly Intercourse between Vermont 
and His Majesty's Dominions.-'* 

In the first place, your Memorialist begs leave to represent to your 
Lordship that during the late unhappy Troubles in America, great num- 
bers of His Majesty's faithful subjects from the provinces of New Eng- 
land, New York and New Jersey retired into the District of Vermont 
in order to avoid being driven into arms against their Sovereign, by the 
Revolters; these Loyal Emigrants, joining with those in Vermont who 
adhered to their allegiance, made at least three-fourths of the Inhabi- 
tants of that District, and those of the Inhabitants, who in the beginning 
of the frenzy which unhappily prevailed in America, even for a time 
opposed to His Majesty's Government, soon saw their error and would 
have been happy to have been permitted to have returned to their Al- 
legiance long before the end of the war. for which purpose Overtures 
were made to the Commander-in-chief in Canada early in 1788. this 
would still be their greatest wish could it be practicable, but being in 
doubt with respect to its practicability, this part of their wish is not 
comprehended in the Commission with which your Memorialist is 
charged. The locality of Vermont, as well as the Disposition of its 
Inhabitants, renders its connection with Canada the most natural as well 
as the most advantageous of any, as the waters of Lake Champlain are 
the principal means by which they can export their produce, or receive 
their manufactures they stand in need of from this Country, on this 
account they earnestly hoped to have been incorporated as an appendage 

2a Burlington Mercury. Dcccmlicr i, 17136, in Prescott's letter to Portland, 
Quebec. December 17, 1796, Can. Arch., Q. 78: i.-ji, 159, 160. 

28 Pp. 63-64, 81-84, of first part. Records. III. 413-41S. 

2' Public Record Office, F. O. 4, vol. 7, and C. O. 42: 12. f, 409. 

28 Levi .'Mien seems to have had no other public authority than his commission 
under the act of 1784, which conferred powers for exercise in Quebec solely. See 
his letter to his brother Ira. London, June :;5, 1789, printed in the Vermont His- 
torical Magazine, T. 572-573. and in Records. III. 409. 

AM. HIST. REV.. VOI.. XXI. 36. 



554 Documents 

to the Province of Quebec, but those hopes were defeated by the bound- 
ary line of the United States as settled by the late Peace. 

Your Memorialist begs leave further to represent to Your Lordship 
that the number of the Inhabitants of Vermont is computed to be one 
Hundred and Sixty Thousand Souls,-^ and the Country is daily increas- 
ing by a rapid Population ; their vicinity to Canada and particularly the 
bordering of Lake Champlain, the principal entrance to that Province 
from the South, canot fail. Your Memorialist humbly apprehends, to 
render their Friendship and Commerce useful and acceptable, and as 
they are for the most part people who were (and continue to be) loyally 
disposed, and after being driven on that account into this place of Re- 
treat were finally cut off from His Majesty's Dominions and Government 
sorely against their wishes, would willingly hope that they might be con- 
sidered in some degree worthy of His Majesty's Royal Benevolence and 
Regards. 

The Produce of Vermont consists in Lumber, Naval Stores, Corn 
and Grain of all sorts, Pot and Pearl Ashes, pig and bar Iron, Cattle 
and Provisions of all kinds, Horses and Mules, Hemp, Flax, Tallow, 
Bees wax and Honey, with many more articles, which the Inhabitants 
early wish to be permitted to send to or through the Canadian market, 
and to receive in exchange such Goods and Manufactures as they have 
occasion for. In the same manner and subject to the same duties, Imports 
and Drawbacks as if said District had been part and parcel of His 
Majesty's Province of Quebec. 

Your Memorialist therefore humbly prays that your Lordship would 
be favorably pleased to take this Memorial into Consideration, and that 
such free License and Permission may be granted in the Premises, as 
shall on mature deliberation be found meet. 

And your Memorialist will pray for and in behalf of 

The Inhabitants of Vermont, 

Levi Allen 
London, May 4, 1789, N 4 Bridge Row, near Ranelagh 

II. Grenville to the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council 
FOR Trade and Plantations.^" 

The Lords of the Committee for Trade and Plantations; 

My Lords, 

I have the honor of enclosing to your Lordships herewith a Memorial 
delivered to me this day (addressed to my Predecessor in Office) by Mr. 
Levi Allen in behalf of the Inhabitants of Vermont, setting forth that he 
has been appointed under the Great Seal of that State pursuant to an 
Act of the General Assembly to Negotiate a Commercial and friendly in- 
tercourse between the said State and His Majesty's Dominions, and 
proposing certain arrangements in consequence, and I have received His 
Majesty's Commands, to desire that Your Lordships will take Mr. Allen's 
proposals into your consideration and acquaint me for His Majesty's in- 
formation what steps may in Your Lordships' opinion be taken therein. 

29 The census of 1790 gave a total population of 85.425. 

30 Public Record Office. F. O. 4. vol. 7. The date may be presumed to have 
been June 13. 1789- Grenville succeeded Sydney as home secretary on June 5. 



The VcDnoni Separatists and Great Britain 555 

I enclose a Copy of the Minutes of the Legislature of the State of 
Vermont, and of the Commission before mentioned."^ 

III. Levi Allen to Henry Dundas, Ranelagh, August 9, 1791.22 

Sir; 

Since I left Vermont in Janry 1789 the Principal men of Governor 
Chittenden and Aliens Party, Instructed me in addition to the business 
of the Commercial Treaty I was Honor'd with from Vermont, to assure 
the British Court that Vermont was from local situation as well as from 
inclination firmly attached to them, and that whenever Vermont should 
find it necessary to join Britain or join Congress, they would positively 
join the former. Indeed Vermont at that time viz. the principal men 
of Chittenden's and Allen's party was clear for joining Great Britain 
immediately; in order to which my surviving Brother, Ira Allen, and 
myself waited on Lord Dorchester at Quebec, about two months before 
my departure for England, and gave a written proposal for that purpose. 

After my arrival in London more than twelve months passed without 
the least Probability of success ; of which I informed my brother Ira, 
with much reluctance, after receiving several letters from him full of 
complaints for my unpardonable neglect in not acquainting him with 
what was doing, and what probability there was of anything being done 
at the British Court. ^^ .\ short time after, just as I was preparing to 
embark for America, Col. Simcoe took me by the hand and brought 
forward the business of Vermont in a very satisfactory manner, of which 
I lost no time in acquainting Governor Chitenden and Ira Allen at the 
same time acquainting them I should set out for Liverpool in a few 
weeks to charter and load a ship with all possible dispatch for William 
Henry.^-* and they would not fail to have a proper cargo prepared at 
William Henry for the English market on the ship's arrival. Many un- 
avoidable Procrastinations took place in the course of chartering and 
loading the ship at Liverpool, amongst which the obstructions thrown in 
my way by the Merchants in this country who supply Canada were not 
the least, our seamen were impressed^^ and a second crew mostly ran 
away, the latter was owing to some imprudence of the Captain. The 
contrary winds Prevented getting out of the harbor for a long time, and 
to complete the unfortunate scene, was drove by a heavy gale of wind 
from the Banks of Newfoundland within sight of the Azores or Westerly 
Islands, neither the captain or mate had ever been up the St. Lawrence, 
and all appeared much afraid to venture, and as a clause in the Charter 
Party left it optional with the Captain to stop at Quebec he found it 
unsafe to proceed to William Henry. The captain being an obstinate 
timmed man, declared if I insisted on his again attempting the St. 

•'" A marginal note here says that these inclosures were not found. 

32 Can. Arch.. Q. 54: 698, and C. O. 42 : 85 ; summarized in Report for 1890, 
second part. p. 306. Dundas succeeded Grenville as home secretary on June 8, 
1791. Grenville on that day becomins foreign secretary. 

33 Grenville meanwhile wrote Dorchester of the importance of having th» 
friendship of Vermont in the event of alarm from the United States. This 
friendship had been strengthened, he said, by the encouragement already given. 
For this reason he had encouraged Levi Allen. Grenville to Dorchester. White- 
hall, May 6, 1790, Can. Arch., Q. 44 : 87. 

3< At the head of Lake George. 

3'" A general press for the Nootka Sound armament occurred on the night of 
May 4. 1790. 



556 Documents 

Lawrence he positively would go no farther than Quebec, which would 
by no means answer my purpose, and the wind still continuing unfavorable 
we stood for Georgia.^'^ After arrival I wrote Governor Chittenden and 
Ira Allen, the misfortune met with, and that I should pay them a visit as 
soon as the ship was loaded for England, but having to dispose of and 
purchase a cargo in a place where I had little acquaintance and less 
Friends, and none I could depend upon, the Captain proving to be an 
obstinate ignorant miserly Brute I deemed it improper to intrust him 
with the cargo, a dispute arising about demurrage which could not be 
settled with him, and some bills I had been favored with leave to draw 
in England would shortly become due, and my credit forever ruined as a 
Merchant, or a man of Honour, if the same were not Punctually Paid; 
In this disagreeable situation I again wrote Governor Chittenden and 
my Brother, and returned in the ship, Having previously taken two long 
tours into the back-woods of Georgia to see Genl Clarke, he being absent 
the first, for the particulars of which I refer you to Col. Simcoe, who 
has Clarke's letter.^" 

I shall always be doubly happy to serve this country, for in doing 
so I shall serve Vermont, whose interests on a proper establishment will 
be forever mutual, and of course Perminant, the rulers and inhabitants 
of Canada and Vermont ought to keep up a friendly connection, and I am 
sorry to have occasion to observe it is not the case at Present, through 
some little foolish Prejudices that exist between them. Soon after my 
leaving Vermont my brother Ethan Allen died,^^ and before the end of 
the year, through some private outrages of Congress and New York, 
and by means of two hundred and thirty votes of Chittenden's Party not 
arriving in time, the opposition very unexpectedly to Chittenden's Fn>;;di 
got Mr. Robinson in Governor, which the other and far the strongest 
Party, had not the least suspicion of.^'' Chittenden had been Governor, 
and chosen annually from the commencement of the State to that day. 
During Robinson's reign overtures were made to federal Congress, to 
admit Vermont into the federal Union. In October Chittenden was 
again elected Governor by a large majority of votes. Congress finding 
their friend Robinson, was out of office, and that Vermont was negotiat- 
ing as a Sovereign State a commercial treaty, with Great Britain in 
January 1791 Passed a decree allowing Vermont to join the Union and 
send three members to Congress, and at the same time giving the same 
liberty to Kentucky, and probably for similar reasons and immediately 
after Passed a decree to establish a Customs House on Lake Champlain at 
45° N. Lat. for the Purpose of making the Vermonters pay the same duty 

36 The difficulties of autumnal navigation into the St. Lawrence are illus- 
trated, under date of October 16 in the next year, 1791, by the following passage 
from Mrs. Simcoe's diary : " It will be so late before we come into the River St. 
Lawrence that the pilots will prob.ibly have quitted the Isle of Bic [their station 
108 miles below Quebec]. . . . and the master of the Triton cannot carry her up 
without a pilot. In this case we must return to the Gulph, and the season being 
too severe to keep in a northern latitude, we must steer for Barbadoes." The 
Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto, 191 1), p. 46. 

37 An examination of the papers in the Canadian Archives has failed to throw 
any light on the subject of these "tours". Apparently the letter spoken of has 
not been preserved. A letter of Levi Allen'to his wife, an e-xtract from which 
is printed in the Vermont Historical Magazine, I, 573, is dated Savannah, No- 
vember 29, 1790. 

38 Ethan Allen died February 13, 1789. 

39 Moses Robinson was elected governor October 9, 1789. 



TJie Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 557 

on goods through Canada as those that come up the Hudson River ; which 
customs house soon after built will probably suffer desolution by accidental 
fire as there are many very careless people in Vermont, who often set the 
woods on fire to facilitate catching their game.*" Since the passing of the 
aforesaid decrees in Congress there has been no stated session of the gen- 
eral assembly of Vermont (nor any special one called that I have any in- 
formation of) till the meeting of the general assembly which shall be on 
the second Teusday of October next; before which time I will be there 
(the King of Terrors only shall prevent) and make no doubt that the 
Profer of Congress will be rejected by the Legislature of Vermont. 
Vermont have annually for many years chosen three representatives for 
Congress, but they never attended. As to the Proclamation given out 
by Governor Chittenden to the inhabitants of Alburg to convene for 
the purpose of choosing town office, etc., it is a matter that the law directs 
on organizing a new town, wdiich is the case with Alburg.''^ As to that 
part which mentions to choose some proper person to represent them in 
Congress, I cannot positively see what necessity there was for it, but it 
may be a form of word used upon those occasions, as all the original 
parts of Vermont have for some time and do still vote for members of 
Congress, as before observed. Whatever is done or is doing in Vermont 
I shall give you the minutest information of, after my arrival there, and 
if matters work as I firmly believe, and most sincerely wish, for the 
good of Great Britain, Canada, and Vermont, shall Probably be here 
agai;i in a very short time and be able to silense the little invectives pri- 
vately and liberally thrown out against Vermont. 

I will venture to say that the People of Vermont have not the most 
distant idea of allowing the State of New York to hold the lands lying 
between Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario, as those lands were included 
in the grant made to New Hampshire more than a century ago. As 
there is a considerable party in Vermont who adhere strictly to the 
Principles and Doctrines of the Church of England, I could Politically 
as well as religiously wish that they might be encouraged, and if Gov- 
ernment send out a Bishop to Canada he may have liberty to exer- 
cise his functions in Vermont,''^ and if he be an unbigotcd .sociable man, 
he may assist in the cement necessary between Canada and Vermont, and 
I have reason to believe the latter will appropriate lands for his support, 
as they have 360 acres in every six miles square in Vermont already 
granted to the glebe of the Church of England, and the same amount 

«> Act for admission approved February i8. 1791; for three representatives, 
February 25; for custom-house at Alburgh, act of March 2, 1791. ch. 12. sec. 8. 
Alburgh lay south of 45°, but was on land claimed under British authority as 
Caldwell's Manor, and was within the district of the British military posts at 
Dutchman's Point in North Hero, Vt.. and Pointe au Fer, N. Y. ; but this was 
not known to Congress when it established the Vermont port of entry there. 
Letter of Buckeridge. St. John's. May 8, 1791, Can. Arch., Q. 50: 146, and infor- 
mation from " a member of the Senate " (plainly Rufus King) in Report for 
1890, first part, p. 171. 

<i For the history of the resulting disturbances, see Vermont Records, IV. 
454-478- 

*- Dr. Charles Inglis, the first colonial bishop of the Anglican church, was 
consecrated bishop of Nova Scotia in 1787, with jurisdiction extending over Can- 
ada. Though the appointment of a bishop of Quebec was under consideration 
in this year 1791, as the ne.xt document shows, the first bishop of that diocese, 
Dr. Jacob Mountain, was not consecrated till 1793. 



55^ Documents 

granted to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts." 

This much on the supposition that Vermont has not joined the federal 
Union, and as to the other supposition, that they have joined, I do not 
chose to intrude upon your time by writing on so disagreeable and im- 
probable a subject. 

You shall hear from me the truth the first Opportunity after my ar- 
rival in Vermont. 

I have the honor to subscribe myself in behalf of Vermont, 

Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 

Levi Allen 

IV. Extract of Letter from Simcoe to Dundas, London, August 12, 

1791." 

I beg to offer you the Copies of three Letters, the one from the late 
General of Vermont, Ethan Allen, ■*•'' is now in my possession. In it, 
Sir, you will find the substance of the Politicks which I have adopted 
relative to Vermont. When Sir H. Clinton intrusted me with his plan 
of operations which were prevented by the Death of Major Andre, I 
was directed to make myself master by every inquiry within my power 
of the nature of the Ground, and the Inhabitants in the vicinity of the 
Upper Posts of Hudson's River. From that moment to the present 
Hour I have been convinced of the importance of Vermont, and the 
real good intentions of its Leaders to this Country. I think they may 
be of the utmost utility in the present critical moment. 

Another letter is to me from Elijah Clarke, a General of Georgia, 
and who can neither write nor read. He took Augusta from us in the 
last war. The third is from that active adventurer, Bowles. He had 
served when a boy under my command. I inculcated to him peace, and 
to settle a Boundary; and a system of colonization which I thought prac- 
ticable and might eventually be of great utility to this Country. You 
will perceive, to my surprize, he talks of visiting me in LIpper Canada.*^ 

■13 The foundation for this statement lies in the fact that, in each of a large 
number of townships granted in Vermont by Governor Benning Wentworth of 
New Hampshire, one allotment had been set aside " as a glebe for the Church of 
England as by law established ", while another had been assigned to the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (and another to the first 
settled minister personally). But an act of 1787 had authorized the selectmen of 
each such town, save in the case of the few Episcopal ministers then actually 
officiating, to use the lands for the town. Subsequent state legislation, of 1794 
and 1805. and a decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1S15 (Pawlet v. 
Clark, 9 Cranch 292) diverted the glebes entirely to secular uses; but the Society's 
lands were secured to it in 1823. against similar legislation, by the decision of 
the same court in the Society v. New Haven, 8 Wheaton 464. See also [Batchel- 
der and Bailey]. The Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the Diocese of Vermont (New York, 1870), passim. 

4-1 Can. Arch., Q. 278: 2S3. The rest of the letter is irrelevant to the imme- 
diate subject of the part quoted. It will be found calendared in the Report on 
the Canadian Archives for 1891, Upper Canada, p. 3. 

■15 This letter is not found as an enclosure. Neither have the other two docu- 
ments mentioned below been found. As to Elijah Clarke, see the introduction 
and note 19, above. The item respecting William Augustus Bowles is a new con- 
tribution to the life of that picturesque adventurer. 

46 As to William .\ugustus Bowles (1763-1807), see American Historical Re- 
view, VIII. 70S, 726-734, where are letters from him showing his presence in Lon- 
don in January. 1791. His presence there in that year is also shown in Authentic 



The Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 559 

V. Rev. Samuel Peters to Grenville, Pimlico, November 19, 1791.*' 

PiMLico, Novembr. 19th, 1791. 
My Lord — 

Last evening I receved a Letter from Levi Allen Esqr. dated at Bos- 
ton New England the 15th of October 1791, which says, "this day at 12 
O'clock at Noon I arrived here in a small sloop from Halifax and to 
morrow morning I shall set off on Horseback to execute the Business I 
have much at Heart". Mr. Allen adds, "I was charged four Guineas 
duty at Falmouth ; and twenty eight Guineas for my passage in the 
Grantham Packet to Halifax which with other Expenses on' the Road 
from London to Falmouth and from Halifax to Boston, exhausted nearly 
all my Cash, whereupon I called on Dr. A. A. Peters of this Town,''* 
and gave him the signal of Lewis Alden and the Dr. Advanced me one 
hundred Pounds Sterling for Lezvis Alden's Bill on you. HI carry the 
two points in full Expectation, I shall not mind my Expenses and 
Labours ". 

By various Letters from the States of America I have Information, 
that Emigration and discontent still prevail, and my friends wish to 
know by next January whether I am to go out Bishop of Canada, as 
February and March are the months for moving their families on the 
snow and Ice.^" 

My Lord, 

I am with honour and esteem, 
your Lordships 

most obedient and most humble Servt. 

Samuel Peters. 
Right Honble. Lord Grenville. 

VI. Levi Allen to [Dundas], Vermont, Onion River, November 27, 

1791.5" 

Sir 

As the Courier from Canada from [for?] New York is Put in here 
in a gale of wind, I take the liberty (tho' out of the channel proposed 
through Governor Simcoe) to write you as the same will come sooner 
to hand. 

Memoirs of William Augustus Bowles, Esquire. Ambassador from the United 
Nations of Creeks and Cherokees to the Court of London (London. 1791). and 
in the Canadian Archive Report, for 1890, second part. p. 285. Bowles and his 
party visited Quebec on the way. in July, 1790. See ibid., pp. xlii, 154-156 of 
first part. 255-256 of second part. 

•"Public Record Office. C. O. 42:88; Can. Arch., Q. 57:176. Dr. Samuel 
Peters (1735-1826), the celebrated Tory parson and writer of Connecticut history, 
was now living in London on a government pension of £200 per annum. P. R. 
O., Treas. 50 : 7. The letter is endorsed as received the same day and transmitted 
to Dundas in Lord Grenville's note of the same date. 

48 Apparently Dr. Alexander Peters, a physician in Boston at this time. 

<9 Simcoe, in a letter to Dundas. London, June 2, 1791. declaring it indis- 
pensable that a bishop should be appointed for Upper Canada, states that he has 
recommended Mr. Peters, late of Connecticut, as a proper person. Can. Arch., 
Q. 278:228. In 1794 an irregular convention of Vermont Episcopalians elected 
him bishop of Vermont, and he accepted the election, but was never consecrated. 
See Doc. Hist, of the Prot. Episc. Ch. in Vt., pp. 25-46. 

50 Can. Arch., Q. 54:721. and P. R. O.. C. O. 42:85. In Can. Arch., Q. 
57: 194, and P. R.. O., C. O. 42: 88, there is a letter of the same purport to Dr. 
Peters, signed "Lewis Alden " and dated at Alburgh, on the same day, November 
27. 



5 6o Documents 

I sailed on the Grantham, Capt. Bull the nth of September arrived 
at Halifax in 27 days, the next mong. took a Passage in a httle fishing 
sloop for Boston, where I arrived the sixth day, hot a horse and sadle, 
etc., and in three days rode to Windsor in Vermont where the Legis- 
lature of Vermont had a few days previously met, and much to my great 
mortification [found] that there had been an a<ljourned session between 
Oct. session 1790 and Oct. 1791, also a convention of deputies from each 
town. Previous to said adjourned session, in which Vermont had fully 
joined the United States.^^ I remained at the General Assembly to the 
close thereof, twenty-one days. I think I may affirm without arrogance 
that if I had got up the River St. Lawrence last year with the well- 
chosen assortment of goods, Vermont would not have joined Congress, 
in fact a majority of both Houses now confess they are sorry, and feel 
themselves much hurt on hearing many advantages that would have ac- 
crued to Vermont if they had remained Independent, and at the same 
time on the other hand I made an estimate of the Probable Duties Ver- 
mont would be obliged to pay annually, which had not been before prop- 
erly stated. I made no mention of anything, only my own opinion and 
what I had found would have been done in the course of negotiating 
the commerce of Vermont. 

The facts are a number wanted to go to Congress, and tho' but four 
can go, yet 44, at least, expected to be appointed. Ethan Allen being 
dead, and Ira Allen was silent on account of the land he owned, and 
Caldwell first claimed,^- that Governor Chittenden thought it unpopular 
to oppose the current, so that poor Vermont had not a man of any con- 
siderable consequence to say a word for her real interest. 

I shall in the course of the insuing winter go into the back parts of 
Georgia, visit General Clark,''^ and communicate every information to 
Governor Simcoe that may be advisable to him. The puff of wind being 
abated the courier will not wait, nor give me time to write this out fairly. 

I am Sir, your faithful Humble Servant, 

Levi Allen. 

51 Assembly session of January 10-27, '791 ; convention of January 6-10. 

!■? Caldwell's Manor, a tract near 45° N. lat. and including Alburgh, claimed 
by Caldwell under grant from the Canadian government, and, in part, by Ira 
Allen under grant from that of Vermont. 

=3 Elijah Clarke. 



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